"It makes me think that I should be very, very focused on how I look and I should want to be thinner than I am and have more money than I do," one college student said.

In a tweet, Dillard's apologized, saying the company has removed the sign -- which it says was not placed in the girls' department by an employee.

No explanation as to how it did get there -- or whether that means it was supposed to be placed somewhere else. In any case, it's gone now -- though not before Dillard's endured a round of bad press.

It's hard to say what the lasting impact will be on Dillard's as a whole. We did see a couple people on Twitter say they won't shop at the chain over the incident, but in recent years the company has done well in holiday sales compared to its department store competitors.

DC Comics was similarly in hot water last month over this Batman T-shirt that many deemed sexist: